The Kinzua Country Tango

I can't believe it has almost been 2 weeks since I competed in the Kinzua Country Tango, two Saturdays ago, on the 2nd of August. What an event! The Friday before the race, one of my college friends and cross country teammate married my other college friend and cross country teammate. I would like to congratulate Nate Smith and Carrie Franze on their marriage and future journey through life together! The reception was amazing and I wish I could have stayed a lot longer, but I had business to take care of the next morning in Warren, Pennsylvania. I took Christie down with me to the reception in Pittsburgh, stayed until 8:00 p.m., and then I drove up to Warren while Christie headed back up to Erie for work the next morning. It was not the most convenient time for me to be doing upwards of 20+ mileage the next morning, especially with all the driving involved, but I had already committed to my tango team as their half-marathoner, their land navigator (orienteering), and 4-miler. The Kinzua Tango is comprised of a half marathon which starts at approximately 7 a.m., then a 20 mile bike consisting of non-technical mountain bike trails and National Forest roads. The next leg is a 2.2 mile swim followed by a relatively elevated orienteering course spanning over 6 miles of wooded area. The final two legs of the tango is a 4.5 mile run and an 8 mile canoe. There are individual and team entries. The photo above is an image of the Kinzua Dam, which the half marathoners run by around mile 10.

I did not arrive in Warren, Pennsylvania until after midnight on the eve of the Kinzua Tango. Thanks to Thad Turner, the executive director of the Warren YMCA, I was able to sleep in the gymnasium of the YMCA so I did not have to wake up until 30 minutes before the half marathon started. I have known Thad, when he was the exec. director at Brookville, since I was in elementary when I would go to the Brookville YMCA and play basketball at all hours of the day and night. I ended up sleeping on a gymnastics mat that night in the gymnasium, texting Christie and telling her that I had made it up to Warren OK, and I eventually fell asleep on the gymnastics mat later on, using my running t-shirts as a sad excuse for a pillow. That night I was just hoping to get as much sleep as possible for the long day that awaited me in less than 7 hours.

Unfortunately, I was awakened before 6 a.m. by a frightened morning worker who Thad must have not informed that I was sleeping over. Evidently she saw a limp body on the floor of the gymnasium and thought I was either dead or homeless. Nope, just a tango runner who didn't feel like driving the morning of the race. Needless to say, I didn't get back to sleep after I was startled by the bewildered morning worker. I decided it would be best to grab a vitamin water and a banana and start preparing for the 13.1 miles that awaited me.

The half marathon started right on time at 7 a.m. and by mile 3, the race was between me and a runner from Duquesne, Mike Stolar. I felt pretty damn good in the earlier portion of the race. I ended up gapping Stolar by 6 miles only to have him close back in on me at the only hill of the half marathon at mile 9. I don't know what the hell happened to me running up the hill at mile 9, but my running collapsed and my 5:30 pace quickly fell. I didn't recovered completely until about 800 meters after I crested the hill, and by that time instead of looking towards the finish line, I was looking at the back of Stolar. I still had 10 miles of racing after the half marathon, so I closed the gap as much as possible, but still finished behind Stolar at the end of the half marathon. I finished the half in exactly 1 hour and 13 minutes, tagging my cyclist at the finish line. By the time our swimmer came in, our team had taken over 1st place and I went into the woods with my orienteering partner. We struggled to find the first point, which ended up costing us a good half hour, but we trekked through the hilly terrain pretty quickly and found points 2,3, and 4, back tracking a few times until we found the points. It ended up taking us another 15 minutes once we arrived at the first point again and locate it, and another 15 minutes to run back to the start so I could run my additional 4.5 miles. We came out of the woods in 4th place, with an orienteering time of 2 hours. By that time I had run over 20 miles, the latter half all in wooded terrain. I grabbed a gatorade, half a banana, and headed back out on the road. I was pretty disgusted at myself for letting my team down in the orienteering, so I tried making up for whatever time I could in the 4.5 mile run. I crossed the line and tagged the canoe team in the same place in which I had left. Our team ended up finishing the tango in 4th place overall as a team and I was happy to have run over 24 miles within a time frame of 4 hours without too much difficulty, or at least without an injury.

I highly recommend the Kinzua Tango for anyone interested in competing in an adventure race of some sort. The half marathon portion of the race is on a paved road which goes through the Kinzua National Forest, passing the Kinzua Dam around mile 10. The Kinzua Tango was a great stepping stone for myself. It was excellent training for the Marine Corp Marathon I will be competing in on October 26, 2008. I have a solid 2 1/2 months before the Marine Corp Marathon, so this next month and a half will have plenty of training miles to come.